Systems and methods for tissue stimulation in medical treatment

Abstract

Stimulation treatments for various medical disorders, such as neurological disorders, comprise novel systems, strategies, and methods for providing TMS, electrical, magnetic, optical and other stimulation. Some stimulation methods comprise varying the stimulation parameters to improve the therapeutic efficacy of stimulation, and decrease risk of habituation and side-effects such as interference with normal brain, sensory, motor, and cognitive processes. The creation, and subsequent variation, of stimulation parameters can use sensed data in order to match, adjust, or avoid matching characteristics of the stimulation therapy relative to certain endogenous brain activities. Novel methods are described for choosing, creating and subsequently stimulating with partial signals which summate to produce therapeutic vector fields having unique temporal patterns and low-or high-frequency spectral content.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60,593521 filed Jan. 21, 2005, entitled “Systems and methods for treatment of epilepsy and other neurological and psychiatric disorders”, and claims priority of U.S. Provisional Applications No, 60 / 594,321 filed on Mar. 29, 2005 and 60 / 596,693 filed on Oct. 13, 2005, both entitled “Systems and Methods for Tissue Stimulation in Medical Treatment”, and incorporates these prior applications herein in their entirety.[0002]The invention is directed to the treatment program used to guide stimulation treatments and includes providing novel stimulation signals used by implanted stimulators or external stimulation devices such as magnetic stimulators, which can induce currents in the brain or body of a patient, and which can be used in the treatment of medical disorders such as neurological, movement, and psychiatric disorders, or other disorders of the brain or body, and is particularly relevant to reducing the incid...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a treatment program for medical disorders that uses innovative stimulation techniques to guide the placement of electrodes in the brain or body. The program includes novel stimulation signals that can induce currents in the brain or body, which can be used to treat various disorders such as epilepsy, migraines, headaches, pain, and depression. The program also takes into account the non-target areas that may be affected by the stimulation and reduces the risk of side-effects. The invention can be applied to both the brain and body, and can be used in combination with other therapies such as medication and surgery. The techniques described in the invention can also be used for sensing data related to the disorder being treated. Overall, the invention provides a more effective and safer treatment program for medical disorders.

Problems solved by technology

There are several problems which are encountered when providing stimulation, such as neurostimulation, in the treatment of a disorder.

One problem is that the stimulation field is not optimally focused within a target area, and stimulation occurs in adjacent areas.

For example, providing low frequency stimulation to one area may assist in treatment of some types of disorders such as epilepsy, while this same stimulation causes side-effects by unintentionally stimulating adjacent areas.

Other problems which arise when electrically stimulating tissue are related to the transfer of energy from the electrical contact to the immediately adjacent tissue as well as through tissue itself.

While certain types of stimulus waveforms may be good for treatment, these may be less well suited for transmitting energy from the electrodes to tissue, and subsequently through tissue itself.

The idea here is that it may not be possible to achieve the desired therapeutic effect without unwanted side-effects of stimulation when a large volume of tissue is simultaneously modulated.

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